Phase II of the Australian Government’s Asia-Pacific Forestry Skills and Capacity Building Program – Call for Proposals
On Tuesday 28 July 2009 the Australian Government announced applications opened for competitive grants under Phase II of the Asia-Pacific Forestry Skills and Capacity Building Program.

Your organisation may have applied for funding under Phase I of the Asia-Pacific Forestry Skills and Capacity Building Program (the Program). Phase I commenced in 2007 to assist countries in the Asia-Pacific region increase their forest management expertise and improve the carbon sequestration performance of their forests. Under this phase $2.1 million was allocated to projects that met this objective. A summary of the outcomes of Phase I projects is available at http://www.daff.gov/forestry/international.

In early 2008 the Program became part of the International Forest Carbon Initiative (IFCI), one of Australia’s key climate change policies and programs. Phase II of the Program supports the objectives and geographical focus of the IFCI. The main purpose of Phase II of the Program is to build capacity for delivering sustainable forest management that supports efforts towards reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.

Phase II will focus primarily on Indonesia and Papua New Guinea (PNG) with some scope for supporting knowledge transfer more broadly across the region. Phase II of the program will fund three to five, large, integrated projects aross Indonesia and PNG over a period of three years.

I have attached the program Guidelines to Applicants and the Application Form. Word versions of these documents, a Summary of the Phase I project outcomes and a Phase II Situation Analysis that details capacity building needs and activities that could be undertaken in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea are available at http://www.daff.gov.au/forestry/international.

Applicants may include multiple partners in their projects. Project applicants will need to clearly demonstrate how their proposals align with the objectives of the APFSCBP and the IFCI goal as detailed in the attached Guidelines to Applicants.

A total of $12.1 million is available for Phase II. Each detailed proposal submitted will be assessed by the Australian Government with input from a Specialist Advisory Group and in-country technical expertise. A Letter of Support from the government of the host country should accompany proposals, where possible. Each detailed proposal will contain an executive summary of the project that details key project activities and objectives.

All proposals must be submitted on the Application form by 5pm Australian Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday 8 September 2009.